This week we are joined by no-budget filmmaker Courtney Daniels, writer/director of WHAT OTHER COUPLES DO, BEDROOM STORY, and IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S LA and writer of the book Yes You Can: How to Make a Movie for Almost No Money
Courtney selected the original VALLEY GIRL from 1983 to bring onto the pod. This was the breakout role for Nicolas Cage as well as director Martha Coolidge, who went on to direct such 80’s gems as REAL GENIUS with Val Kilmer.
VALLEY GIRL was meant to be a basic teen sex comedy loosely inspired by the Frank Zappa/Moon Zappa song of the same name that parodied “Val Speak”, the airheaded teen dialect of the SoCal Valley area. But Coolidge brought a female POV and voice to the work, transforming it into something more sincere, layered, and unique. She discovered Cage when she pointed to his headshot and said “That! We need someone like that! Not a pretty boy!” The producers weren’t convinced Cage was sexy enough to be a romantic lead, but he cranked up the charm and magnetism with a wild and unpredictable performance, essentially finding the style of acting that would go on to define him so that he could secure a role he wouldn’t otherwise have qualified for. (At least not in the producers’ minds.)
Coolidge had to agree to include precisely 4 scenes of bare breasts, and make the film within budget, and the producers left her alone outside of those perameters.
The result is a cult classic that only grows in reputation as new genrations discover it. Listen to our full conversation above!
Wine Trivia Question of the Week
The Wines
HUSCH Late Harvest Gewurtztraminer, Anderson Valley, California
One of Dallas’ most cherished wine memories is traveling to Anderson Valley, and stumbling upon this small winery where almost no one else was present. There were a few tables for seating guests, and the winemaker themselves served him some of the best Gewurtraminer he’s ever had in his life. He bought a case of it on the spot.
Years went by as he sang the praises of this wine and winery (but never shared, the stingy bastard jk he drank it all way too fast to share it the greedy bastard.) By the time he found another bottle at a local shop, it didn’t taste as he remembered it. The memory of how unbelivably good the wine was, was just that…a memory. So fondly recalled that no reality could ever compare.
But the Late Harvest Gewurtztraminer still holds up, or so says Dallas. “Late Harvest” being when they harvest the grapes late, allowing them to over-ripen, develop an abundance of sugar content. This would create an alcohol bomb of a wine if they fermented it all the way to being “dry”, but instead the goal is to halt fermentation at a certain point and leave a significant amount of sugar behind, un-fermented, thus creating a sweet desert wine.
Gewurztraminer is an “aromatic” grape, beatifully floral, peach and tropical fruit-driven, a flavor and aromatic profile that lends itself to desert styles. At 17% residual sugar this is a decadent, sweety of a wine, just like the 80’s teen love aehtetic of the movie, but also layered and more satusfying than you’d expect, just like this movie.
Courtney had been gifted this wine by a friend - and is there any more filmmaker / LA wine than MIRAVAL Provence Rose? The answer is “no”.
Founded by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie while they were still a loving couple - though today owned only by Brad as Jolie sold off her shares in the wak of their divorce - this is a pink, light, crisp, proper Provancal style rose made for sipping on the balmy 99 degree days that mark a typical summer day in the Valley. If Miraval existed in the 80’s, these Valley kids would be illicitly sipping it to prove how classy they were.
Thaaaaat’s right! I chose the wine that could have sprung straight out of the 80’s with it’s stickers, charm braceletes, jargon-coated labels, and names like “OMG!?!” and “Obsessed”.
In the episode I read out loud Gen Z founder Jess Drury’s story of starting Whiny Baby, and I speak it in a Valley Girl voice, or “Val speak”. It’s not a very good Valley Girl voice, but I do my best😜
PLEASE NOTE: Jess Drury does not in any way sound like this. I was just getting into the spirit of the Valley Girl movie and the Valley Girl song by the Zappas.
And it’s actually a pretty fascinating, inspiring story that admittedly is going to challenge most tradiitional wine folks to enjoy her POV or passions that had her start up Whiny Baby from her mom’s living room, and now a couple years later it’s owned by Gallo.
You can read her full story on Stevie Stacionis Substack where she interviewed Jess:
I ultimately paired the movie with Whiny Baby OBSESSED Red Wine as the color, intensity, and the idea of being obsessed with another person (or wine!) is the most apropos for the romance in Valley Girl.
